


Lass Uns Laufen

by Master Thief (lucid_lies)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Nazi Germany, Alternate Universe - World War II, Bigotry & Prejudice, Concentration Camps, Dehumanization, Derogatory Language, Deutsch | German, Discrimination, Eren Is a Little Shit, Eventual Levi/Eren Yeager, German Eren Yeager, Germany, Grisha Yeager's Bad Parenting, Grisha is a Nazi doctor, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Jewish Character, Jewish Levi, Languages and Linguistics, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Nazis, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychological Torture, References to Hitler, Slurs, Violence, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 04:48:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5277299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucid_lies/pseuds/Master%20Thief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a savage world filled with war and death, and a monstrous love that makes monsters of us all.<br/>[Summary will be re-written at some point.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lass Uns Laufen

**Author's Note:**

> Please, you know yourself and so you know what you are and aren't comfortable with. Think before you read. Anything to do with WWII/Hitler/Third Reich isn't going to be pretty and clean. I'm going to try and portray Nazi Germany as accurately as I can, but there's only so much I can do. If something is incorrect, or if you think there should be something added, please feel free to comment/pm me. 
> 
> Just as a general warning because I know it's not everyone's cuppa, I will be using a mixture of German and English (or at least I hope to - if there aren't too many objections). I'm half German and I took 3 years of it, and I'm very proud of my culture, but none of my living relatives speak German so I'm afraid there are going to be mistakes. I'm trying my best and I'm crosschecking but the fact still remains that I'm going to mess up, so please feel free to point out any mistakes there as well.
> 
> The entire first chapter, all of the dialogue is in German but that will not be the case for subsequent chapters which will only have small bits of dialogue in German. Translations will be provided for at the end of each chapter.
> 
> Anyway, without further ado, here's Lass Uns Laufen (Let Us Run/Let's Run).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've had this partially written on my phone for a long time now, but I just now got around to finishing it. I've got quite a bit planned out so I hope you find this interesting. The dialogue for this chapter is completely in German, translations can be found at the end. Which brings me to my question, do you mind the German? Should I not use it and just write in English instead? 
> 
> As of right now, my plan is using small bits of German later on now that this chapter is done, but mainly have the dialogue in English. This chapter will probably be the only one that is so heavy with German, however, I'd still like to know your thoughts on the use of German throughout the story. I'd rather it not come across as obnoxious. 
> 
> A quick side note, November 9th, 1938 - which is the date this story begins - is Kristallnacht(Night of the Broken Glass), which was an attack on Jewish businesses/homes/etc. 
> 
> Now, here's the first chapter. I hope some of you can at least find it a little interesting~

Prologue

The love of power is the demon of men -

Friedrich Nietzsche

 **9\. November 1938,** **Deutschland**

His _Oma_ , with her warm hands and soft smell, always warns him that the day will come when the Germans turn on them. Every night she tucks him in, fragile fingers sweeping through his hair and lips pressed to his forehead, whispering in her broken, heavily accented German, “ _Lass sie das nicht sehen. Lass sie nicht wissen, wer du bist. Wenn sie das wissen, jagen sie dich wie einen tollwütigen Hund._ ”

He always rolls his eyes and says, “ _Ich weiß, Oma. Ich werde vorsichtig sein_ ,” like a good German boy should.

He is never allowed to speak Hebrew, it is always German or he isn't allowed to say anything at all. _Mama_ and _Oma_ taught him that speaking the language of the Jews (he’s never allowed to call them his people for they aren’t - he is a good German boy, as his _Oma_ says), even if it’s in the relative safety of his own home, is as bad as spitting at the _Führer_ ’s feet.

Nodding her head once, satisfied with his response, his _Oma_ would wish him a goodnight and turn out the light, leaving him to stare at the darkened ceiling until sleep claims him.

None of these things, the careful speech and hushed warnings, matter now. As the sound of angry shouts and shoulders slamming against wood reach his ears from his hiding place under the bed, Levi knows that the day his _Oma_ always talked about has come.

The Germans have finally turned on them.

The _Gestapo_ are banging at the door and there's only so long until the wood gives in, until the brutes in black coats with their angry screams and rough expressions and cruel hands storm their house, finding his _Papa_ hiding behind the curtains in the sitting room, a gun in his shaking hands. They don’t hesitate to gun him down before rounding up his _Oma_ , her frail body huddled in the closet. When she doesn’t move fast enough, they beat her bruised and bloody with the handles of their guns.

And then it's Levi's turn.

His _Mama_ is squeezing him tight to her chest, shielding him as he shakes apart under the bed, hands smoothing back his hair and voice low as she comforts him in soft whispers.

“ _Mein Schatzchen, Levi. Alles ist gut. Sie können dir schaden nicht. Sieht Mama an._ ”

He can feel her tears dropping on his head, how her arms tremble around his small frame, the desperate hitch of her breath. How, when the bedroom door is kicked open with a heavy boot, she can't muffle the hopeless sob that wells up from her throat, or how she holds him close to her even tighter, to the point where it hurts.

“ _Bleib fest, Liebling_ ,” she says, pressing kisses to his forehead over and over. “ _Ich liebe dich sehr viel_.”

“ _Ich liebe dich auch_ ,” Levi whispers back, just as black boots settle in front of the bed and a gloved hand grasps the mattress, roughly ripping it away from the frame and exposing their figures curled up on the floor.

Cold eyes gaze down at them as the expressionless face of the Gestapo officer as his even colder voice calls out, “ _Ich habe ihnen gefunden. Sie wurden unter dem Bett versteckt_.”

Levi’s Mama stopped trying to hide her sobs, pleading with the man standing over them, “ _Nein, bitte nicht mein Sohn. Nimm mich statt, nicht mein Sohn. Er ist gut, er ist Deutsch_.”

The _Gestapo_ officer stares down at them like they are animals rolling around in their own filth, a disgusted sneer pulling at his thin lips. “ _Er ist nicht Deutsch, er ist ein schmutziger Jude_ ,” he says, spitting on the begging woman’s face. “ _Ihr werdet alle in der Hölle verrotten_.”

“ _Nein, nein! Ich sag es dir, Levi ist Deutsch_.”

A big black boot kicks out at her head, clipping her on the cheek. Her pained cry rings out into the room, a hand cradling the abused flesh. Fresh tears run down her cheeks and she shields her child as best as she can with her body.

“ _Halt den Mund, juedische Hure_.”

Realizing how utterly hopeless their situation is, Levi’s Mama can do nothing but cry and hold him close, perhaps for the last time, all while muttering _nein, nein, nein_ under her breath. She doesn’t want to accept the fact that her child will be ripped from her, possibly forever, and that he could very well be dead before the day is out.

A tiny hand brushing against her cheek startles her and she stares down at her son with wide, watery eyes. Her heart breaks when she sees how terrified he is, how his bottom lip trembles, how large and haunted his beautiful eyes look. She places her hand over the one he has resting against her face, expression wrenched with pain as she kisses the tiny palm.

“Levi,” she whispers against his soft skin, “ _Mein Sohn, mein Herz_.”

“ _Mama_ ,” Levi calls, voice small and shaky, frowning doubtfully, “ _Mama, alles ist gut. Ja?_ ”

She stares down at him, at her entire world wrapped up in this little boy who stole her heart from the minute she laid eyes on his precious face, and her lips quirk up into a bittersweet smile.

Her precious son, her light, her little Levi.

The world is cruel and it makes monsters of men.

She can only hope her little light won’t be snuffed out so cruelly, even though she knows with every fiber of her being that they will not survive the first evil of its kind, Dachau, or the cruel _Doktoren_ of  Buchenwald, or the frigid Polish winter.

But delusion is better than reality when staring down a loaded gun, so she lets herself go and lets herself believe as the sound of heavy soled boots marching down the hall rings in her ears like a death knell, she lets herself believe that her beautiful, intelligent son will somehow survive this, she lets herself press their foreheads together and say, “ _Alles ist gut_ ,” even though hell is knocking at their door.

She lets herself believe, and by extension, so does Levi.

She can only hope he doesn’t break when he’s forced to face the truth.

“ _Bleib fest, Levi_.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Oma:** Grandma  
>  **Lass sie das nicht sehen. Lass sie nicht wissen, wer du bist. Wenn sie das wissen, jagen sie dich wie einen tollwütigen Hund:** Don’t let them see. Don’t let them know who you are. When they know, they hunt you down like a rabid dog.  
>  **Ich weiß, Oma. Ich werde vorsichtig sein:** I know, grandma. I’ll be careful.  
>  **Mama:** Mum  
>  **Führer:** a German title meaning leader/guide, most commonly associated with Hitler  
>  **Gestapo:** official Secret State Police of Nazi Germany/German Occupied Europe  
>  **Papa:** Dad  
>  **Mein Schatzchen, Levi. Alles ist gut. Sie können dir schaden nicht. Sieht Mama an:** My treasure, Levi. Everything is okay. They can’t hurt you. Look at mum.  
>  **Bleib fest, Liebling. Ich liebe dich sehr viel:** Stay strong, Darling. I love you so much.  
>  **Ich liebe dich auch:** I love you, too.  
>  **Ich habe ihnen gefunden. Sie wurden unter dem Bett versteckt:** I found them. They were hiding under the bed.  
>  **Nein, bitte nicht mein Sohn. Nimm mich statt, nicht mein Sohn. Er ist gut, er ist Deutsch:** No, please not my son. Take me instead, not my son. He is good, he is German.  
>  **Er ist nicht Deutsch, er ist ein schmutziger Jude. Ihr werdet alle in der Hölle verrotten:** He is not German, he is a filthy Jew. You will all rot in Hell.  
>  **Nein, nein! Ich sag es dir, Levi ist Deutsch:** No, no! I’m telling you, Levi is German.  
>  **Halt den Mund, juedische Hure:** Shut your mouth, Jewish whore.  
>  **Mein Sohn, mein Herz:** My son, my heart.  
>  **Mama, alles ist gut. Ja?:** Mum, everything is okay. Yeah?  
>  Dachau/Buchenwald: Dachau was the first concentration camp erected in Germany, and it opened in 1933, it wasn’t liberated until 1945 by American soldiers. Buchenwald opened in 1937 and was one of the largest concentration camps during WWII, and was liberated from Nazi Germany in 1945 before falling into the hands of the Soviet Union. Both concentration camps are known for human experiments - which often led to death/trauma/disfigurement/etc - conducted on the prisoners by Nazi doctors.  
>  **Doktoren:** doctors  
>  **Alles ist gut:** Everything is okay.  
>  **Bleib fest, Levi:** Stay strong, Levi.


End file.
